Mom

There is a rather strange and also quite interesting thing, many languages ​​in the world such as English, Russian, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Czech and many other languages… all pronounce the word mother starting with the letter M. In Vietnam, in addition to the word “mother”, different regions also have different ways of calling such as “ma, ma, me, me, mau…” which of course also start with the letter M.

Why is that? Is it a mystery that challenges science or simply because the M sound is the simplest lip movement for each child to easily send the first language signal to the mother? Anyway, the word mother comes to us in such a lucky and magical moment. Before knowing how to spell "mờ - e - me - trong - mother" before mastering a huge and complex block of language, just a few months after being born we can call mother, it is like a priceless lucky money that nature has given to the sacred motherly love. Life is like that, when born we call mother, when happy we call mother, when in pain we call mother, when afraid we call mother and even when in danger we still suddenly call "mom".

Mother, that word, that image, that symbol is forever the most constant and profound emotion of every human being. Mother is the greatest benefactor of the world. Mother's love is boundless, mother's sacrifice is something that cannot be measured. There are millions of works of cinema, theater, literature, painting, music, sculpture that have made constant efforts to portray the image and qualities of mothers. Works about mothers always move us, but it seems that they are only enough to sketch a very small part of the mothers we have ever known. Every description of mother is ultimately only a description of a very small part of mother. Mother is the "spiritual leader" who diligently and compassionately guides us through life.

In my neighborhood, there is an old man named Huynh, who is 82 years old but still sits and waits at the door if his “little” 65-year-old son, who is drinking green tea at the neighbor’s, has not returned. It sounds like a joke, but it is true. Mother’s love is a limitless and unconditional love. When I was a key cadre at the base, I witnessed a famous general on the battlefield, who had gone through life and death on the Route 9 battlefield in Southern Laos. He was brave and majestic, “screaming fire” in front of the soldiers, but every time he returned home, he still threw himself into his mother’s arms to be hugged, caressed and told gentle things. That’s right, all the heroes above were born from a mother. To mothers, the older we get, the more we feel like children. Mothers carried us, gave birth in pain, gave us the first drops of sweet milk, and the sweet, soothing lullabies, and so on and so forth… We were born, we grew up and we matured. Wherever we are, whether directly or indirectly, our mother's image protects and encourages us.

The story goes that there was a fierce bandit who, when surrounded, held out and fought back frantically against the authorities. All negotiations and calls for surrender were ineffective until his biological mother appeared. Only the weak words, "Nam, come back, son. You were wrong, come back to me, son. Come back, I'll wash your hair." Only that much was enough for the bandit to accept to put down his gun and collapse into his mother's skinny hands. Deep down in her heart, a mother has boundless strength, the strength of maternal love. "A mother's heart is a deep abyss, at the bottom of which you will always find forgiveness" (Balzac).

Mother is still present in faith, in Christianity there is the Virgin Mary, in Buddhism there is Bodhisattva Guan Yin, in folk beliefs there is the Holy Mother and so on. It is not by chance that when people die, they say they “return to the motherland”. That’s right, people call it “motherland” and no one calls it “fatherland”.

There are great mothers, mothers who transcend personal family feelings., “mothers who are mothers at heart/Love their children as if they were their own”(To Huu) those people“Mother comes home and stands in the rain/ Covering her sleeping children/ Stopping each step of the enemy/ Mother sits in the rain”(Trinh Cong Son), yes, those are the Vietnamese Mothers! Legend has it that, once upon a time, on a beautiful afternoon in the primeval period, Mother Au Co gave birth to one hundred eggs which hatched into one hundred Vietnamese children. We share the same mother, and are all bound together by the two words “compatriots”.

That is what Vietnamese mothers are like. Following the Trung Sisters, Ba Trieu, Bui Thi Xuan, Duong Van Nga, Nguyen Thi Minh Khai, Vo Thi Sau, Mother Tom, Mother Suot, Nguyen Thi Dinh, Sister Tu Hau, Phan Thi Hong Gam, Dang Thuy Tram and millions of other mothers and sisters... With the spirit, "even the hem of the pants is beaten"Our seemingly weak long-haired army has carved out an image of strong, courageous Vietnamese women, devoted to the people and the country. Today, sisters and mothers have appeared on a new front. Whether it is science or business, art or sports, in the factory workshop, in the fields or with a bamboo broom on the sidewalk, mothers and sisters are still tirelessly "spinning silk" for life.

In 1994, our Party and State officially conferred and posthumously conferred the title of Vietnamese Heroic Mother, a title that seems to be the only one in our country to confer on mothers who "sent their children away" and "cry silently". The brutal war has taken away so many lives, no title can compensate for the great sacrifices of mothers. The men have fallen, but the pain of losing their children still torments mothers every night. Vietnamese mothers, who held guns and plows, dismantled houses for convoys to go to war, accepted the ultimate pain to dedicate their excellent children to the country. Great, extremely great, heroic, extremely heroic. To Huu has a very touching poem about Vietnamese mothers:“I'm back, Mother Tom/Oh the suffering mother who saved rice/For me for the Party in the past/Not afraid of prison, shackles, guns and swords”.

In 2018, the whole country was moved by a sad story related to the case of a wrongly exchanged child at the hospital 6 years ago. It was an unfortunate incident, but above all, the mother's heart was evident. Ms. H raised baby M for 6 years, was wrongly accused of being unfaithful, and was divorced by her husband. 6 long years of silence until one day the truth was revealed. She was shocked and in tears. That mother could not be away from baby M, the child she did not give birth to but had raised since childhood. Mother's love is like that, believe me, if in this world there is someone who is willing to die for us when needed, it is the mother. Someone once said "God cannot be everywhere, so He created mothers".

Yet, right before sitting down to write these lines, the author read a startling piece of information. According to the report, by 2049, that is, in just 30 years, our country will have a “surplus” of 4.3 million men. The consequences of the problem of gender selection! It is heartbreaking and infuriating that the ideology of male superiority over female still prevails. Having 4.3 million men in surplus means that we have lost 4.3 million mothers!

Perhaps when this article reaches readers, the whole world is filled with slogans celebrating March 8. Every message is precious, but perhaps what we need is action instead of shouting with banners. Every woman has the responsibility of being a mother, every mother is a benefactor. Before doing great things, please be a good child to your mother! Don't be "foolish" and upset your parents, don't let yourself be in trouble and blame "The child is bad because of the mother"!